The president of the British smoking association FOREST called England’s finance minister Jeremy Hunt heartless and cruel after his action to update the pricing and taxation of tobacco products in line with the current inflation of 10% of the economic crisis caused by the end of 2022 by the Russian war in Ukraine.
Adding to already unaffordable prices the equivalent of 12 euros in pounds, inflation was decided to be applied for this year 2023 by the Treasurer adding the established constant of 2% for tobacco products from above inflation which is even temporarily soaring to above 10%. This had not happened in 2021 when the Prime Minister of England who served as finance minister in Boris Johnson’s government, Rishi Sunak, stabilised prices dependent on excise duty.
Simon Clark, president of the British smoking association FOREST said that “Punishing smokers for their habit during a cost of living crisis is heartless and cruel. It discriminates against poorer smokers and will drive many more consumers to the black market. This is bad news for legitimate, law-abiding retailers, and bad news for the Treasury which could lose billions of pounds in revenue if more smokers buy their tobacco from illicit traders.”
The price of tobacco products as a result rose on the same day of the announcement of the state budget at 6pm London local time by more than 12% bringing the price of a pack of 10 pounds (12 €) with twenty cigarettes to 11 pounds (13 €). Although inflation is expected to decline by the end of 2023 to 2.6%, the prices of tobacco products are by definition and logically unaffordable and disproportionate to the true value of the product.
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